Andrew House, an executive who runs Sony Computer Entertainment, the company's video-game division, will take over his duties.

When Schaaff joined Sony, Businessweek called him the company's "renaissance geek." In 2010, he became president of Sony Network Entertainment, a unit which includes online music, video, and gaming services.

Based in San Jose, Calif., Schaaff oversaw the launch of Music Unlimited, a Spotify-like music subscription service, and also led the company's network entertainment unit through an unfortunate incident where the PlayStation Network got hacked, exposing users' personal information.